Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Pinocchio : Republicans threatened to filibuster the stimulus bill, claiming their goal was not to block the bill but to change it into a tax cut for them and their owners. "Nobody that I know of is trying to keep a package from passing," said GOP leader Sen. McConnell, fingers firmly crossed behind his back.

Puzzles #1 and #2: How long will the American taxpayer keep bailing out the elite? What form will the revolution take?

He said They said : Kyrgyzstan's president said Tuesday that US use of Manas airbase is ending. A US military official said this was "political positioning" and denied the US would be leaving the airbase any time soon. Also, he added, all the troops in Iraq are 'support troops'.

Not Made in Japan: Japan's industrial output has fallen nearly 30% in the last 4 months. That is a larger decline in output than any 12 month period in the US during the Great Depression. If this keeps up for a full year, there will be essentially no production in Japan. Zero.

Word for the Day: Insubordination - Disobeying the legal orders of a superior, as in Generals Petraeus and Odinero deliberately trying to evade Obama's order that the retreat withdrawal from Iraq proceed .

Getting Malled: Simon Property Group, the largest US mall owner, plans to pay its dividends in IOUs stock. It also revealed it will not build any major new projects for 8 to 10 years.

Three Little Piggies: Geithner, Daschle, Killefer. At least Nancy Killefer had the common decency to withdraw her name from consideration, which shamed Daschle into following suit. Don't expect Geithner to follow along, he's from the IMF and Fed, and those folks have no shame.

Not Good Tidings: The FDIC wants to triple its credit line to $100 billion so it can handle the coming bank failures. Optimists.

Logistics: "An Army travels on it's belly," Napoleon. "[In Afghanistan] a small army would be annihilated and a large one starved," Duke of Wellington. A 100 ft iron bridge 15 miles out of Peshawar on the way to the Khyber Pass has been destroyed. Nearly all supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan must traverse this route.

Less is Less: The average house size shrank from 2,629 to 2,438 square feet from 2Q08 to 3Q08. Another year or two they'll be down to a nearly reasonable size.

Priorities: "Coal is 80 percent of the planet's problems," Dr Hansen maintains. "You have to keep your eye on the ball and not waste your efforts. The No. 1 enemy is coal and we should not forget that." All fossil fuels are a problem, of course, but a coal-fired plant emits twice as much carbon dioxide as a gas-fired plant producing the same amount of electricity.

The Bush Legacy: In Bush's first 6 years the average income of America's richest 400 doubled to $263 million while their tax rate fell from 30% to 17.2%. How did you do?

Location, Location, Location: Nearly 95% of homes in the LA metro area lost value last year. Over 50% of houses were sold at a loss. More than 1 out of 3 house sold in the area were foreclosures. Nationwide it is thought that one in six homeowners is underwater.

Compostus Interuptis : Now someone wants to dump all of the world's agricultural waste into the deep oceans, to sequester the carbon. What happens to a field's productivity if you do not return nutrients to the soil? Can't any of these idiots think things through? Absent decomposting crop waste the field will lose fertility rapidly, then require more and more fertilizer.... Jeesh.

Anon - You're forgetting the rules of the Senate - all the GOP has to do is threaten a filibuster (which they have done repeatedly for the last 2 years) to stop legislation dead. The Dems need 2 maybe 3 more seats to reach dictatorial levels of control. A simple majority won't do.The Senate was set up that way to prevent mob rule... or, more accurately, to prevent the public from getting their way over the landed gentry.ckm

Gegner - Ah yes, elections. I wonder why we bother. I certainly don't think that the man in the WH today is the fella most of the crowd thought they were electing. Maybe this giant tent he's trying to build is the right thing to do, but I'm gonna wait till the cows are in the barn where I can count 'em.ckm

Great post - however on article 3: "Also, he added, all the troops in Iraq are 'support troops'."

huh? It doesn't say that in the article. You've mentioned this a few times and it don't scan. The Army openly acknowledges that they have nearly 20 Combat brigades still in Iraq. Where does any Gov official say that troops currently in Iraq are support troops???

Dan K. You are correct. But I read far more than I can cite & sometimes compress things a bit to control for length. The missing reference is to: "Gareth Porter, IPS News, the Gates-Petraeus plan was to reclassify combat troops as "support troops" to get around that little status of forces agreement mandating set withdrawals of US forces." ( http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45640 )ckm

Our Motto

Keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.